


Sullen Sands

by ConfidentEntree



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Cold!Ruby, EWWAU, Everything Went Wrong AU, F/F, I will not believe you, If you don't know what EEW is, Kind of an open ending, Mexicans live in Vacuo and you cannot tell me otherwise, NPC OCs occur when required, POV Second Person, White Rose - Freeform, and kleenex, oops - forgot that one!, still an ending, you're gonna want bandaids
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-06-01
Packaged: 2019-03-29 01:26:22
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,834
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13916418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConfidentEntree/pseuds/ConfidentEntree
Summary: Everything Went Wrong, now you're in the literal middle of nowhere with an extra angry Weiss (who isn't sleeping) and you're dead! To the rest of Remnant you're both basically tumbleweeds - come and gone with the breeze, leaving no trace behind. But what you are to each other is most important and what you are is still here and still you. Now if only Weiss could get that through her stubborn skull... perhaps one of these days.- The desert adventures of Weiss and Cold!Ruby -





	1. Then Everything Went Wrong

 

     It’s kind of funny, how the smallest of things seems to cause the biggest changes. After all, it was only a very small chip - and in the very place you’d been warning her about for - _sigh_. It doesn’t really matter, but you remember hearing the dull clink of metal when the chip occurred. In hindsight it’s louder than any of your retorts... well, maybe... no. No, you remember it clearly. She struck a beautiful parry but it slipped as her blade chipped and in that one instant, everything went wrong. Suddenly Myrtenaster is hanging halfway out your back, your favorite Super Bestie combat maneuver has been interrupted, her gorgeous blue eyes are locked on the sticky, red, sea spreading out across your chest and you utter for the first - and last - time in your life,

                “fuck.”

But really, what else was there to say? In any case, that’s the last thing you can remember for a bit. The next thing you absolutely know is that you’re on a boat - Myrtenaster is gone, Weiss’s beautiful dress is gone, her prized tiara is gone and that little sparkle of a hidden smile in her eyes was gone; replaced with something hard and sharp and - gods, she looked like she hadn’t slept in a week. You find out later that she stopped sleeping at all the day you died.

               

                 It took some time to trek across the Southern Wilds of Vale and into Vacuo and, for your part, a lot of it was spent trying to put your pieces back in order. It was almost like your memories, your soul, your very essence had become the petals of your semblance, scattered about by your very passing. Eventually it all settled into a sort of, large pile you were still sorting through; pieces of things were missing, you could feel it, but for the life... er... essence of you, you couldn’t even begin to figure out what those things could be. So on you went, trying to be as useful as she would let you be, but she was so afraid you would literally shatter. Which was another thing that took quite some time getting used to; your new you. You felt just as strong as before and now you could use your semblance again, but, to say it felt strange would be underplaying things just a bit. In the most honest and basic of similes; it usually felt a little bit like being naked in a space that didn’t exist. It wasn’t exactly **cold** because you had no real temperature of your own. It wasn’t specifically **uncomfortable** either, but ‘comfort’ didn’t really hold any tangible meaning to you anymore. Nothing very tangible did in fact, not hunger, not thirst, not even sweets. If Weiss got some for you though, you made sure to ‘eat’ them. You weren’t really sure how that particular something worked but it seemed to make her a little happier and that was more than enough reason not to question it. It was getting harder to make her smile lately though.

                 

                    Weiss, _snrk_. Now **Weiss** was probably the thing that took the most getting used to. Connected as you were now, you could **feel** her in all sorts of interesting and unsettling ways. You knew her intentions implicitly, all the time. All - the - time. She couldn’t hide her physical condition - her pain, the fact that she was making herself sick - from you. She couldn’t lie to you and hide her emotional suffering and she sure as grim-bait couldn’t hide all that anger. No. Anger wasn’t quite the right word, because Angry Weiss was something you were used to - you were used to tempering the terrible tempest in a teacup. This new angry though - this wasn’t a tempest in a teacup, this was a gazillion goliaths jammed in a gallon jug; this was actual, pure, burning, hatred.

She hated herself for what she had done to you. She hated herself for what she **could do** to you still. She hated herself because you were both too real and not real enough. She hated herself because she hated herself and no matter how badly she wanted you to, you wouldn’t hate her too. She hated everyone because they couldn’t stop it or turn back time or save you and sometimes, just sometimes she hated you too. When she did hate you, she hated you because you loved her so completely. There’s nothing in this pitiful world you wouldn’t do for her; you’d die for her again and again and she knows it and it burns her so deeply... and sometimes she gets angry and yells at you. Most often it’s because you’re trying to cheer her up and make her feel better and it’s just so **you** , which is exactly what she wants from you so she doesn’t know if it’s really you.

She fights with herself over that whenever she thinks you aren’t paying attention and you graciously let her have that - not that you could say anything to stop it anyway. You can’t say anything at all and, if there was only one thing that made you actually angry about this, it’s losing the ability to voice anything. Sometimes you forget though, because you can hear your own voice and she just smiles tiredly as she touches your face and reminds you once more.

                “You sound just like my favorite wind chimes back at the manor. Gods, back then I could have listened to them for hours but now... I didn’t think I could ever miss any sound the way I miss your voice, Ruby.” Her voice breaks on the ‘y’ and you want to cry as she kisses your nose to compose herself; and while you can feel the ‘warmth’ and ‘fluff’ of her sun chapped lips it’s just not the same - so you imagine those sensations **mean** anything to your body anymore and you imagine that you can smell her and for a moment... well, but it never lasts.

 

It’s gone in circles just like that for what must be months now out in the Vacuoan desert. Yeah, it’s been months now since you left the relative - if ill gotten - comfort of the last city you were in. Since she doesn’t sleep now, ever, it’s ended up as just this wild blur of endless nights and twilights ruin diving, clearing caravan roads and scavenging whatever else she could find for Lien and supplies. You have no idea why she was even trying it, but the crazy girl started out this way on all cylinders all the time. You already know **why** she doesn’t **sleep** , but never resting was making things a lot harder than they already were. You were actually pretty proud of yourself when you finally managed to ‘leader-face’ her into accepting that she needed to stop moving and find some dustdamned shade during the height of the day. That was the first day she finally really believed that you might still actually be you, it was almost insulting - of course you’re still you! Just because you’re technically dead didn’t and doesn’t mean you can’t still be you. Hell! If body-hopping, undead, wizards and endless, seasonal avatars are real, why couldn’t you be?! But fuck you for ever trying to get **that** message across; apparently the feelings channel she had with her summons was a one way connection.

                  Speaking of connections though; you’re pretty sure she’s lost hers with reason. It’s like, you understand why she got rid of Myrtenaster and all of her other Schnee-ness, it’s dumb but it makes sense; when there was no body to blame she got rid of the only scapegoat she could find and she had to make sure no one could find you both on this exodus for... uh... exodus reasons. Sure, you could get that, but what you couldn’t get is why she wouldn’t let you help her make a **new** weapon or at least a basic conduit! No, so you’re in the middle of actual nowhere and she’s pretty much armored against only the sand, chucking raw dust spells at dangerous frequency and strength and if you try to help out before she’s halfway to K.O. you’re getting your leash tugged on. You’ve about figured out how to use pebbles with your conjurable Crescent Rose as tangible projectiles though, so there’s that. Oh, she did finally relent and let you make her a better belt to securely store her supplies after about the third time her pants blew up, and you did get to make her a pretty nifty pair of goggles to help compensate for the fact that her sensory functions are a mess thanks to her stubbornness.

 

                Though, in your humblest of opinions, if the genius that it took to make those goggles didn’t prove absolutely that you are you, likely nothing would.

 

                Enough thinking about the past though, you’ve finally got her to accept a job around other people. Sure it’s watching the very ass end of the Oasis Train caravan, but hey maybe you’ll be able to convince her to actually take a break at some point... the sharp cut of her jaw says ‘naw’ but the soft bedding you’ve been boarded while traveling along and those feelings she’s making at you - they’re telling you a different something altogether. You shiver at the memories it evokes in you and you smile as you whirl around and kiss her - and for a single, shining, perfect, moment... ah, but it never lasts.

 


	2. Where the Stars Used to Live

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pleased as pants that this was so well received! To be honest this is the first thing I've ever written this way and I only hope I can keep up with the hopes and dreams and all the angst. The first few chapters are probably going to come out pretty quickly because I've got an idea for them already but after that it'll likely slow down. 
> 
> Now get your fluffy after-kit ready because you're about to get hurt in all the best ways (I hope)!

             The Oasis Train wasn’t a real train at all. Rather, it was a large group of unaffiliated merchants that would get together a few times a year, hire a bunch of mercenaries,  and trek from one end of the wilds to the other, hitting every small settlement and larger city in between. You convinced Weiss to take an easy job for once and travel back east towards the capital with the merchants and as negotiated you would leave them at the last camp before reaching the city proper. It gave you access to plenty of markets to sell the things you had gathered out in the desert so far and plenty of places to buy what you needed. Though what you **needed** had been the subject of many, many debates between you and Weiss. That’s how you met the merchant brothers Sombra and Zalaam; they had things Weiss decided she needed in order to keep you safe. You weren’t sure, exactly, how dosing on dust was supposed to protect you – but what the heck do you know anyway.

It was after you had been traveling with the caravan for a couple of days when things started to really go sideways. After helping to set up an early camp to avoid a dust storm in the distance, Weiss suddenly started clutching at her shoulder and fell to her knees on the edge of camp. Sombra had ‘just happened’ to have been nearby and heard and came to check. You should have been grateful since she wouldn’t let you look, but something about him just didn’t sit right with you. The whole thing didn’t sit right with you, especially when he picked her up, so easily saying he knew ‘just what she needed’. Somehow she knew he meant and nodded and made you go get a snack while they treated her. So you sat frowning as she followed some directions they’d written for her as she made some kind of weird smelling mixture out of dust and some other substance.

You wanted to ask what she was making, why she was making it and just what she intended to do with it, but since talking wasn’t in your **repeator** right now… _repeator? No, repertoire. That’s the one!_ Since speaking wasn’t in your repertoire right now, you decided to just think about things instead. You frowned as you watched Weiss carefully drawing water off of her concoction and got to thinking.

 

              The whole thing just felt bad to you. Something wasn’t right. Not just with Weiss either, almost nothing was right with her any longer so the fact that she was wriggling even further down whatever Creeper den you’d found yourself in wasn’t all that alarming. No, it was something bigger than just you two and as she finished whatever she was distilling and loaded it into a… pipe(?!) you finally figured out what it was. Sombra and Zalaam obviously had Lien – lots of it – but they were at the vulnerable back end of a caravan train and carried no real merchandise that you’d ever seen. They had probably six other people that traveled with them but they seemed really quiet and well dressed so you’d never thought anything about it… but now that you were starting to think about it, you were really thinking about it. As naïve as everyone had always liked to believe you were, it was clear bad stuff happened all the time. Friends that moved to Vale for Sanctum had mentioned choosing it over another combat school or no combat school because faunus trafficking and, to a lesser extent, human trafficking still existed.

You turned to give Weiss your opinion on the matter to find her topless and what should have been an exciting surprise was just became another concern. Your brows furrowed a little deeper than before as you studied her in the low light of your tent; she had propped herself against all of your cushions and seemed to be in a bit of a trance as she took deep breaths – some from the weird smelling pipe, most just normal air. You watched as her chest strained against wounds that weren’t healing, and what almost seemed to be bruises that had spontaneously formed around some crazy-looking, shimmery-blue, something that looked a bit like a cut but wasn’t, by her collar bone. You shook your head. You wish this idiot would tell you why you were even out here – so far away from anything – so that you could actually help her.

 

              You weren’t making any headway there right now though, so in the meantime you’d decided to do something **you** thought was useful. Being dead didn’t change your mission statement; Ruby Rose was here to make the world better, period – and nothing would stop you. So you made a flower crown of conjured roses, daintily placed it upon her head so that she would know you were still around, and set out on your stealth-mission. You definitely had a leg up in stealth now – you moved quiet as a ghost…

Heh… maybe your own silence had finally driven you crazy since you were filling the pun-ishment role for yourself by yourself.

 

               You moved **quickly** through the dusky camp looking for your mark. It was easy enough – the brothers seemed to be pretty in to being honestatious… _is that the right word_ … _yeah, honestatious_. What with their large and richly decorated tent. To you, the whole thing looked like it belonged in an old PinkyAnna Jones’  movie; the gold accents, the silk, the decorated rugs, the spicy scent of something you knew wasn’t **supposed** to be consumed like that, (Uncle Qrow made sure you knew real well not to do it, ever, and bribed you quite nicely not to tell your father the one time you caught him with it), the gambling over dice, and especially the creepy old guys with women younger than Weiss on their laps. Not happily either, judging by the collars you could see on just a few.

 

                You were getting ready to conjure up Crescent Rose and teach those ‘louts’ a lesson – while feeling pretty proud of yourself for remembering a particularly Weiss-y word for those sorts – when you felt it. Weiss didn’t notice the damn flower crown and was getting ready to have a particularly violent anxiety attack. Those guys could wait – no one was leaving the train for another two days either way – and it was much more imperative that you stop her mayhem before it could begin. So you turned around and ran back in record time. Nearly displacing every tent around you, (you seemed to make less impact that way now), you tackled Weiss before she could get more than a foot outside. Pulling her down onto yourself to break her fall, she gave you a fright reaching for a dust crystal before she realized what was going on.

You grabbed her hand and laced your fingers together with a reassuring smile and as you looked up into her eyes – dark bags underneath, filled with tears, and a little glassy she bit her lip and seemed to decide something. She closed her eyes and placed her other hand in yours, sitting up over you fully – then she kissed you. Deep, hard, desperate, almost begging,

               “just for a little while, alright? Only a moment OK?” in between each time her lips met yours.

 

You knew what she was thinking. Again. She had just come back to herself and didn’t see you and decided she had fallen asleep and you had disappeared because she was a failure and you weren’t real. This shit was getting real old you decided, so you decided to show her you could make your own decisions and tried to… uh… **press** the issue. She froze immediately, and apologies flowed about as quickly as her tears as she stood up to get dressed.

                “I’m sorry for trying to take advantage of you, R-Ruby. I’m not sure if it counts but I think… I-I think… using your memories like that… I…” She took a shaky breath, “anyway, I’m sorry and I’m going for a bit of a walk.” Weiss slipped out of the tent and took off into the open desert night. You let her have a moment of a head start and you scowled.

                “ _One day I’ll figure out how to make her believe me._ ” You said it to yourself, you could only say it to yourself – but it was a promise nonetheless, because if one **other** thing made you angry about this whole thing; it was that Weiss was a damn airhead than could justify her way into any self-imposed exile she stumbled upon.

 

 

               It wasn’t that hard to find her, sitting at a long since abandoned campfire burned down to little more than coal. She shivered – partially because she forgot her jacket and partially because she was still crying. You laughed to yourself a little bit.

               “ _Some ice queen you are._ ”

You said it aloud as you threw her jacket over her shoulders and knelt down in front of her. You knew she couldn’t understand you explicitly but you were hoping that at least the feeling in the statement got through.

               “Yes well, ‘ice queen’ never **really** fit anyway.”

You pause as she understands you explicitly, responding precisely and she misconstrues the shock on your face as fear.

               “I already said I’m sorry! I can’t change what’s happened! What I did, what I’ve done – what I’ll do… why don’t you just hate me already? Why don’t you just –“

               “ _No! Weiss! You understood me! You answered! That means I can finally te—“_

               “Ruby. Stop. You’re not saying any actual words.” The frustration must have been written on your face loud and clear because she offers up more apologies before looking at the ground between her feet.

 

You sigh and run your hand over her once silky hair as you shake your own out of your eyes. It wasn’t like it had gotten in the way of your vision – it was just a habit you’d gotten into whenever your hair would grow a little too long. You decide to give it a rest for now and just stroke her hair as you look up and count the constellations that used to live in her eyes.


	3. Of the Shadows and Darkness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I meant to have this out last night but these kids wouldn't stop doing stuff and things got a little out of hand and I finally had to go to sleep at 7 this morning.
> 
> A few quick things: once again I'm very grateful for the positive attention this has been getting! Thank you guys! I've decided not to tag the people trafficking because as far as I know this is the last time it'll show up, if it happens again I'll tag it. If you've never seen the start of the Titty Twister bit in From Dusk Til Dawn you may miss one of the bigger jokes, but that's fine.  
> In addition I'm aware the tense changed - look, things happen - and I've decided Mexicans live in Vacuo and I will not be swayed. My little, gay, Hispanic heart is set on it so there.
> 
> I hope this chapter is everything it needs to be.

It took Weiss a few hours to calm down. Not that time had much meaning anymore, but it was nearing midnight by the time she was ready to pretend she was alright again. You chuckled at that; ready to pretend, that was a pretty good way of putting it. As she heaved a heavy sigh and made to stand you offered to take her hands. She let you and you pulled her up and into an impromptu dance to a song you knew she’d hear too if she would cooperate. She smiled wanly, but genuine and closed her eyes as she stepped in time with you and quietly hummed. For a moment you closed your eyes too and you were on the balcony, under the brightest moon, the first night you were reunited. Easy come, easy go though, and a brief but panicked shriek snapped both of you into hunt mode right away and you remembered what you were doing out of your tent in the first place.

                Weiss scowled into the darkness, looking for the threat, but you were worried you already knew what it was – so you gently pulled on her sleeve, drawing her toward the ‘merchant’ tent you had scoped out earlier.

                “What, you know what that was?” Weiss asked you quietly moving briskly alongside you. You nodded. “How?” The question made you stop and turn to face her, wearing an expression that she taught you.

                “That is **not** a stupid question Ruby Rose.” You almost laughed as she fought the urge to stamp her foot and raise her voice. Instead you did your best to mime an explanation for what you had seen earlier – graciously you left out why you figured out that they were in to selling more than illicit substances. Ah, it was good to know that your virtue transcended death… and now you sounded a little too much like the old Weiss – maybe you were going crazy – but she had been talking this whole time and you didn’t notice until now, so you tune back in and try to piece it together.

                “…trafficking isn’t expressly illegal in Vacuo you know, unless they’re underage. I’m afraid, legally, there’s nothing we can do – and if we do anything before our contract is up then we lose out on all that money and this trip would have been for nothing.” She sees you frown and thinks that you disapprove of her read on the situation, “I know that you just want to help others, but we have to take care of each other first in –” You place a hand over her mouth and roll your eyes, doing your best to strike a pose that says ‘ _I know, that’s what I was saying in the first place._ ” You may be an idealist at heart… er… figuratively… but you learned a while back; what is best and what is right are not always the same. That’s being a pragmagnetic leader. It seems like your pose did the trick though as she just kisses your palm and nods.

                “OK, then show me where they are – if we’re going to do anything about anything we need a – OK! OK!” She breaks off in the middle of telling you – the master of plans – that you need a plan as you just turn and head for your stake out spot.

Dust; this exact scene happened so many times back at Beacon in the reverse… you’re pretty sure that you are losing your mind now. You suppose it should be concerning but, at this point, did it really make that much of a difference? No, no it did not. 

 

                You reach the spot you were watching from earlier – just in time to watch some seriously shady shit. The tent has mostly cleared out; Sombra’s larger frame blocks part of what’s going on inside – but it looks like Zalaam is having a ‘chat’ with some man while his wife, (you guess), attempts to contest negotiations through a silk gag. Things get heated for a moment before the man seems to concede to whatever Zalaam was saying; apparently it’s rather unfortunate as the woman breaks from the large guard holding her and runs over to deck the man right in the face before turning on the brothers.

                “Get it girl.” Weiss whispers encouragingly and you can’t help but smile and agree. Though, misfortune strikes quicker than the woman it seems as Sombra knocks her back into the guard with a bloodied nose and a second guard practically dragging a struggling young girl enters.

                _No, they wouldn’t – not even they…_ you’re not sure if it’s a relief or an even bigger stress when a few coins are tossed in front of the man after the girl is inspected. (The first time you saw a traveling merchant use coins it surprised you, but apparently coins are easier to keep track of in the desert so they carry that for use outside of the city and exchange it when they get in.)  
That wasn’t a whole lot of money for a whole person though; she must have been payment for a debt.

You can’t even imagine being sold by your own family but you look over at Weiss and it’s clear that she can. You note her tight expression and wonder for a moment if she’s ever really been able to breathe. You make a small ‘chuff’, which is just about the only distinct sound you can make on purpose, to get her attention before stroking her hair.

“I’m alright, Ruby. But I agree with your earlier assessment – something needs to be done about these two.” She pauses and takes a deep breath. “After our next stop.” You can tell she’s calculating something in her head and while she doesn’t want to believe you know, it’s how much ‘supplement’ she can buy from these assholes before you do anything in case you don’t get a crack at just stealing it straight from them.

Yeah, you know stealing is ‘wrong’ and you can just hear the lectures right now but the reasons you’re alright with doing it – especially in this case – are many fold. One, they deserve it; two, it keeps Weiss from doing dumber shit; three, they deserve it; and four, they deserve it. See? Pragmantis.  You draw Weiss away from there and into your own tent. You already know she won’t sleep, but maybe she’ll cooperate for cuddles – it doesn’t matter if you can’t feel her correctly anymore, cuddles are cuddles are cuddles and Weiss cuddles are the absolute best of those.

 

She doesn’t, but you hang on to her anyway as she ‘applies treatment’ again. Hopefully she’ll feel fair enough tomorrow that she won’t have to.

 

                The next two days pass much the same; just before dawn you help break camp and then traverse the packed-sand road until just before midday where a few large tents will be set up to ward off the worst of the sun. After everyone has a light lunch groups of hired guards will take turns keeping watch for Grimm and desert bandits; when it’s your turn, you and Weiss plan. Well, mostly she plans – but, you, uh, approve(!) them… most of the time. Honestly – this one is almost a little much, even for you, but there’s no doubt that this is the best option you have available.

In between the next stop of Pequeño Verde and the capital, on the wide stretch of huge dunes, you’ll slip back into the caravan not too long before, or too close to when, camp breaks. Their ‘wares’ should mostly be back by then while they and their guards are the least functionally awake. You’ll free the people if you can, Weiss will be in charge of ‘foraging’. You’ll ‘borrow’ a couple of the dune-skids they’ll pick up just for this area and off you both will go into the day. Hopefully by the time they realize anything, you’ll be well out of range, and off the radar considering where you’re supposed to be leaving, but if there’s one thing you know by now it’s; be prepared for everything to go wrong.

 

The next night, as you both settle in to your room in Pequeño, Weiss seems especially tense. You just got paid, pretty well in fact, and there was nothing to do but wait for tomorrow. This wasn’t pre-mission jitters though. You place your hand on Weiss’s shoulder and she hops a little as you startle her out of her thoughts.

                “Oh, I’m alright – just thinking.” You’re getting really good at this nonverbal stuff. Either that or she knows what you want to ask because that’s exactly what you would ask because she’s being weird. You just give her shoulder a squeeze and look at her with your best ‘ _I already know you’re fucked up, just tell me why_ ’ face.

                “It’s just that girl –” maybe you are getting good at it after all. “When we got into town, I saw them take her into that really skeevy looking bar. You know the one I mean.”  You nod; you do know the one she means. You’re fairly certain if skeeve was a communicable disease that establishment would be ground zero, especially once you heard the caller out front. Man, you don’t really have blood but you were pretty sure his speech made you blush – if that’s where she was going it was gonna be a bad time.

                “I… I know we had a plan, but she can’t get sold to that place. She shouldn’t be sold at all… no one deserves to be treated like an object,” she gives you a significant look as she speaks but you weren’t so good at interpreting those sorts of clues yourself yet and had no idea why she was giving you that look. “No one. But, if we don’t share what we get from them then she’ll just end up in the same bad place again. We aren’t supposed to deviate from—“

                _Oh, you beautiful snowflake – so pure!_ You give her a quick peck to stop her from following that mental path of rigid nonsense and nod vigorously. You are Ruby Rose, and you approve of this plan; spring it early, to heck with everything, save the kid! She chuckles a little bit.

                “How could I have ever thought you wouldn’t be on board for this?” It was said with all the inflection of a statement, but you knew a question when you heard one. So you shrugged as loudly as you could and she chuckled again.

It was hours yet before night time would fully fall, so Weiss took a moment to herself in the bathroom, (as if you didn’t know what she was doing), but it was a good sign that the last time she boosted was two days ago.  Now, aura boosting was addictive – understandably so, it felt awesome –it was also necessary when you sometimes accidentally yourself or others, and it helped with the side effects of aura poisoning, go figure that one. Illegal boosting was dangerous though because you either buy it mixed by some rando or you do it yourself and hope you’re right. Well there was no question in your mind as to whether or not Weiss got the mixture right, only if she got the right dosage. So you got up and walked over, just in time to catch her.

                ” _OK, Weissy, it’s time for you to sit down for a bit._ ” You mumbled as you picked her up fully and carried her to the bed.

                “Only if you’ll sit with me, dolt.” She laughed as she blinked sluggishly and suddenly you discovered a new use for boosting – not that you’d tell her, she had enough dumb ideas of her own for someone so brilliant.

                “ _Of course._ ” You sat up against the headboard and patted your chest and in her haze she thankfully didn’t bother stopping to think about having understood you twice in a row. You made a promise not to talk any more if you could help it.

                “Do you still love me.” Aaand you couldn’t help it.

                _“Yes, absolutely._ ”

                “Why.” It was a statement but you decided to act like it was a question,

                “ _because you’re you and I do, obviously._ ”

                “That doesn’t make any sense... I **killed** you.”

                “ _It doesn’t have to make sense. I’m still here so, apparently, it’ll take a lot more than that to get rid of me._ ” You smiled into her neck, remembering some of the first words you said to her.

                “Ruby Rose. Even my delusions of you are insufferable.” She sort of rasped out a laugh at that, “not that I’d make a habit of this; over-dosing is quite unpleasant. You’re the only silver lining.”

                “ _I would appreciate it if you didn’t, but I’m glad I could help anyway._ ” You sighed to yourself. The woman literally just had a conversation with you and she somehow managed to decide it was a delusion.

The foolishness that she’s put up with compares not to the foolishness of which she’s fooled.

She went quiet after that. She wasn’t asleep, she never slept, but she did rest and for that alone you were grateful. You’d take anything you could get for her. Soon enough though the hours had passed and the side effects wore off and it was nearly time to put operation Do The Thing into action. You squeeze her shoulder to get her attention and point to the clock.

“Oh, I guess we’d better get going then.” You shake your head against her before giving her a kiss, right on the nape of her neck and point at the bathtub.

“I don’t have time for that.” You hug her close and nod vehemently. You felt her interest pique through your connection. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d accuse you of being just as bad as that oaf.” You aren’t really sure why Weiss is talking about grains, so you just smile and nudge her that way.

“Okay, fine. I have time for it. I’ll be right back.” You smile a little broader and wait for just a little while before going into the bathroom too, it was what she was hoping you’d do anyway.

 

As you walked to skeeve-central, you could have pouted. You may have pouted. OK, you absolutely pouted but it was so unfair that she wouldn’t let you do anything **fun** because ‘oh Ruby – you must defy me to prove you’re not at my every whim. But wait! If you defy me now it’ll only prove you’re under my whims!’ you were about nine hundred percent done with that nonsense but she refused to see any sense in the matter. So instead you sulked your way all the way into the bar and past the caller, (who had an excellent memory but a terrible vocabulary). You looked to Weiss as you stepped inside, she looked equal parts embarrassed and angry and with no small amount of jealousy you recognized her bothered face. You may not have been able to have much in the way of physical sensation anymore, but damn if your emotional state didn’t resonate throughout the whole of you. Yes, you were here to rescue someone, but this came first. While Weiss’s tired gaze wandered, checking out the waitresses and performers for more than just the target you put operation Still My Booty into action.

You moved behind her as she shuffled off to the side to get a better view of the entire bar and when she stopped you wrapped yourself around her with a good grope and what would have been a marking bite to her uninjured shoulder. She sighed before whipping around startled.

“Ruby! What—” Something about the look in your eye or the possessive charades sparked something in her head. This was the second time she really thought you might still be you – and you were still a little insulted by that. Unfortunately something over your shoulder caught her eye and as you turned you saw the girl you actually came for. Gods she couldn’t be older than – nope, not thinking about it – at least she was only serving drinks. You sighed and turned back to Weiss asking if she was ready with your expression.

“Yeah, let’s go find the merchants and grab some skids. You’ll come back for her and I’ll go for them. Don’t look at me like that! You’re faster still – you can grab her and bring her to me where I’ll explain while we load up.” You didn’t like it, being in a town like this separated your parts much further than you would like, but if that was what she wanted…

Just as you nod your consent you feel something tug on your sleeve.

                “Do you want something to drink, hunters?” It was the girl, and she looks at you oddly for a moment before moving on just as quickly. Weiss wears an expression like agony as she leans over,

                “do you really work here? You seem awful young.”

                “Yes ma’am, but I am still just a candidate before they decide whether or not to keep me.”

                “You don’t seem too thrilled about it. Do you want to leave?”

                “More than anything, huntress, but it seems it wasn’t in the stars for me.” You frown at the girl’s words – how many times had she seen this happen?

                “What if I could put it in the stars for you?” Weiss’s own mood seemed to be clearing up a little and you wondered just how much of herself she saw in this kid.

                “Then I would offer you anything in my power to give you, including my life.” You saw it then, too, in the resolution of the girl’s eyes; and wondered if you had ever looked so absolutely certain of your own convictions or if you ever would have. You get lost in thought for a moment but it seems like those two have worked something out and you would follow Weiss to oblivion and back, so you nod affirmation to whatever she just asked you and follow her out – hand held by Osprey, as you found out the girl’s name was.

 

Osprey points the way to where Sombra and Zalaam have stashed their cart. Fortunately and unfortunately it still has all of their supplies in it; fortunately because you wouldn’t have to track them down, unfortunately because that means both guards and the brothers are there.

“Ruby, take Osprey and go get a large sand skid. I believe the caravan has a few lined up nearby.” You try to protest but she gives you the look that meant you’d be getting nowhere, so you softly huff and beckon Osprey to follow you and off you go – leaving your idiot to do Grim-knows-what. Of course, Weiss was only waiting till you were around a corner before picking a fight. It was kind of annoying that she thought you wouldn’t know, but you were just waiting till you were around the same corner before motioning Osprey to wait as you dashed off to get what you needed as quickly as possible. It only takes you fifteen seconds, but when you get back it’s become clear that Weiss has made another risky decision. You mime a sigh as she dispatches the second of the two guards, taking a nasty throwing axe to the chest for her efforts.  Osprey watches in wonder and you can’t help but pat her head before jumping in – apparently Sombra and Zalaam had some training.

 

The thing about fighting with raw dust isn’t so much the inherent danger of dust itself – a skilled dust mage has no problems dealing with that, it’s that it’s inefficient at best and downright expensive at best. If Weiss hadn’t been doing this for ages now, you imagine it would be a lot worse than it currently is, but as of right now she’s got a crystal in each hand trying to ward off three daggers from two bodies much bigger than her own. You mime a sigh again knowing there’s no way she’ll let you get close to the action and pick up a handful of pebbles. You’ve been working on it anyway – no time like the present for practice you suppose.

It doesn’t take long after that. Turns out they weren’t professionally trained after all.

 

                Before the dust can even settle out of the air, it’s clear the scuffle was noticed and you hear voices headed your way. Some you recognize as repeat clients of the brothers, so you quickly go to their cart, only to find it empty. As you turn around, Osprey is loading the last of things onto the skid.

                _Tricky kid. She belongs at a combat school;_ you decide to yourself and collect all the coin lying about. You hand it to her and write ‘Shade Jr. Academy’ in the dirt before ruffling her hair again. Weiss seems exhausted as she pats Osprey on the back and walks away too.

                “Stay free, kid.” She mumbles as you push the sand skid forward.

 

A sand skid is some kind of cross between the air boats they use in the Anima swampland and the toboggans from Atlas that Weiss has talked about. You and… a blonde someone, (seems like you found one of the pieces that was still missing), would see them in books and they always looked like so much fun.

Your only regret, as you got out of town and Weiss kicked the motor on before heading North, was that you couldn’t actually feel the chilled desert air whip at your hair or the airborne sand sting your skin as your skid occasionally left the ground.

Weiss actually laughed as you stood anyway and pretended you could, holding your arms out to the sides letting your cloak snap wildly. It seemed shorter on you now, but as you turned to check you caught sight of Weiss’s expression. In the midst of the shadows and darkness now settled in her counting-ants, some of the stars had come home – and that alone made the trip worth it.


	4. Just Like the Movie!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Completed chapter 4;
> 
> Well, it's no Overlook or Bates Motel, but...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would have liked to make this one a bit longer, but it's better to get the things started in this case I think. In any case; this next bit ought to come out fairly quickly again - the problem is the in between because I don't know about fun things in fantasy deserts, (real deserts are hella boring). If you have an idea or suggestion, catch me in the comments or on Tumblr @scuro-at-your-service

         

On the second day in your flight across the dunes you stumble across the crumbling remains of a paved road. In spite of herself and her own protestations Weiss eventually gives in to your curiosity and agrees to see where it goes. You can’t see why she would protest in the first place – you guys aren’t doing anything more exciting than that, at least not that you’ve been informed of. She’s quiet for a little while before she mentions that some abandoned Schnee venture was abandoned out this way; her father kept old maps around, some of which she saw fit to memorize for, like, no reason. Maybe that’s where this leads? Yeah, maybe that’s where this road goes. You figure that would be a little boring, but maybe it wasn’t abandoned because the mine was bad and that would be good!

                “You look like you’re rambling, Ruby, is there something you wanted?” Apparently Weiss has gotten very good at reading you like some large print book so you shrug as you point at the road. She takes a moment to contemplate what she thinks you might be asking before you see her focus on something over your shoulder.

                “No, I don’t think this road goes to the mine, I think it goes to that.” She points just as the engine on your sand skid starts making a horrible noise. Sounds like some of the bearings have finally given up the ghost after being pushed so hard over such a distance. Poor thing won’t last much longer. You do your best to communicate these things to Weiss, while gesturing at the building set in front of a field of massive dunes.

                “I’m aware that it’s broken and that we’ll have to stop, Ruby. You may be the genius engineer but even I know what mechanical death sounds like.” You have to fight the urge to smile at the heavy scowl she wears like a safety blanket – it’s actually very cute and it always has been, but telling her that makes her even scowl-y-er. As you get closer a large sign begins to take shape outside of a ruined parking lot;

                “La Llave, sandboarding oasis and resort.” Weiss reads aloud. That name sounds so familiar… suddenly your sand skid really, really throws the towel in and sputters to a stop with one last heave and a pop and a sputter of black smoke. You really hope this place had some decent mechanics because you may be a genius, but you aren’t a god and raising this vehicle might take mecha-necromancy.

 

                You shudder and turn back to the building and that’s when it hits you – why the name sounded so familiar – “La Llave; Oasis of the Damned” was your favorite horror movie of all time. You had no idea it was a real place, but the angle you are sitting at now confirms that the shot was taken from this spot. You can hear Weiss shouting at you as you zip about shedding white petals everywhere in your excitement but you aren’t listening, you aren’t even pretending to try this time as you take in every inch you can. It is just like the movie! Before you can run straight into the building, Weiss tugs on your leash figuratively by grabbing your hood,

                “whoa, slow down. This building isn’t going anywhere and neither are we. What’s got you so riled up?” Even able to speak you would still find yourself speechless – does she really not remember? You she’s seen it, you know you made her… and then you remember. Weiss really hates horror movies. The smirk finds its way to your face before you have a chance to stop it,

                “what? What is it? Why are you smiling like that?” Her brow furrows in worry and you watch as it finally slides into place. “No… no. No, no, no! Ruby, there’s no way that movie was about a real place and there’s absolutely no way, even if it were, that that real place is this real place. It’s just not plausible.” You would shun the nonbeliever if it wouldn’t go badly, but instead you forgive the heretic for her heresy and simply nod while you place her at just the right angle to see it for herself. _Wow, she gets even paler?_ It startles you a bit, how shock white she goes, and you’re worried she’s about to faint but she seems to just double down and stare at the building like she’s daring it to defy her and be scary. It really is just too cute when she’s so feisty and you can’t help it, this time you giggle.

                “Shut up! Don’t touch me!” You wrap your arms around her in apology and reassurance and she half-heartedly pushes you away even as she snuggles in closer to you.

                “ _It’s OK, I won’t let anything get you.”_  

                “It’s not very reassuring to hear that since you could just as likely be saying ‘I’ll keep you safe’ as ‘I’ll make sure you only lose one leg’.” You frown right in her face. She already knows you wouldn’t betray her like the main guy betrayed his ‘best friend’ in La Llave, and you complained about what a stupid decision that was every time it –

                “I’m just kidding, I know I’m safe with you.” Weiss places a soft kiss on your nose with another tired smile and you wonder just how long she can keep this up. That weird light-cut thing is gone now, as is most of the bruising, but you know they won’t stay gone and some of her normal wounds aren’t healing right either. Maybe a resort vacation is just what you need – even if it is a long since abandoned, horror movie resort. You gently pull her toward the door and do your best to convey such a message and she rolls her eyes.

                “Ruby, we need to fix the sand skid, we don’t have the time to – ” you interrupt her by tugging her off balance just a little. She trips forward and you catch her with a kiss on the forehead and employ your most powerful weapon; pouting. She gives in almost immediately and you smile. Sure you need to fix the sand skid, but you do have time to mess around. Honestly, you’ve got all the time in the world to waste as far as you’re concerned; you still haven’t been told any different. You try to say _don’t worry, it’ll be fine_ with just your face and,

                “if we must,” she relents.

Yeah, it’ll be more than fine. This is gonna be awesome – you just know it.


	5. I was wrong, OK?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so it's taken forever but I finally did it. I hope you enjoy it.

               

               You begin to maybe rethink your excitement about fifty feet after crossing the threshold. Abandoned luggage and sandboarding gear lies scattered about almost too casually – like the owners have only just stepped away. The other unsettling thing is the resort’s décor – it was absolutely still the same retro style shown in the movie. **Everything** looks the same way as in the movie and suddenly that doesn’t seem quite as fun to you as you look down dimly but still lit hallways. You turn around to make sure Weiss is alright and far from being frightened she seems to be right at home. Your confusion must show on your face as she answers you,

                “what? The actually scary stuff doesn’t happen until much later, right? Well, we need to take the time before things start to get what we need settled and sorted.” Oh, oh. So, it’s not that she’s alright – it’s that she’s gone through every shade of not alright and decided that “Oasis of the Damned” was going to be her guidebook.

_Well, it could be worse;_ you decide and just like that all of the spook is diminished. You smile to yourself; everything is the same as in the movie because they just didn’t bother disassembling the set – nobody even knows this place is out here so why would they waste money and time on that? The hallways are still lit because there are skylight things where the wall meets the ceiling in evenly spaced increments, and of course the décor would remain this place was likely built back then anyway – no reason for all of no one to change it. You give yourself a hearty nod and note that Weiss seems to still be plotting things – what she really needs a vacation from is her mind, but she won’t do it until you’ve fixed the skid. You grab a duffel bag that still seems to be in good condition and dump out the contents before getting her attention.

_Let’s find the maintenance area and get tools and then have some fun!_ You attempt to communicate to her by pointing at the bag and a sign and then a sandboard.

               “I agree with finding the tools, but have you ever even been on a toboggan let alone a snowboard? I can’t say I’ve been **sandboarding** specifically, but I know my way around a ski slope and I don’t think you realize how much of a pain it is. Besides, staying till dark isn’t really an option – we don’t want to get stuck overnight.”

_“You know this isn’t actually the movie right? Like, there isn’t going to be some crazy guy in tunnels underneath the hill that thinks he can control a giant deathstalker”_   It doesn’t matter if she can’t actually understand you, you feel the need to say it out loud as you roll your eyes with a  smile.

               “Of course I know we’re not **literally** in the movie! But we still don’t want to be stuck in some unfamiliar place that’s dust knows how old and rickety and you still don’t know how to sandboard **and** don’t look at me like that! I don’t have to explicitly understand you to know when you are shit talking, Ruby Rose!” A smirk slowly works its way on to your face during her rant growing in direct inversion with the scowl forming on her own. As she finishes you just shake your finger in jest about her language and head for a map on the wall to see about where to find the maintenance room. It isn’t that hard to spot, even as dingy as it is, Weiss continues her sulking at you as you trace a path in the dust and hope that things are structurally sound down to ‘B2’. You give an involuntary shudder as you hallucinate menacing laughter straight from your memory of the movie crawling from the corridor you’re going to have to go down. You turn around, steadying yourself against your mind only to come face to face with a Weiss that’s almost as pale as you are practically tackling you.

               “Don’t. Don’t you fucking say a damn thing.” You know she’s bad with ghosts and ghouls and horror movies and, oh shit – it wasn’t a hallucination, there really is some crazy laughter coming from that direction. If you still had a heartbeat you think it would have skipped at that realization, and it would stop right about now because that’s the way you have to go – you have to go that way; there is no other way of going but that. You squeeze her tight and wait until after the cackling stops to bring her focus to the map. You know how things like this go; it’s better to let her realize that you have to go skipping into hell on her own because then she’ll be stubborn enough to see it through. So, as soon as you get her attention you swing her around and point at the map you traced a pathway on.

               You watch her expression change and, even if you were able, you wouldn’t tell her that you think the myriad of frowns she can has just make her cuter – it’s too bad you’re stuck in between sand and a dumb place, otherwise you might enjoy this _._ The smile beginning to find your lips deflates near instantly and almost as completely as Weiss does once she traces out your route in her mind; you catch her before she hits the ground though.

               “I can’t believe this. My life was already a shit show and now it’s a horror movie? Not you though, you’re still beautiful, Ruby.” Weiss grumbles into the empty space beside you before heaving the sigh of ages and nodding resolutely, “let’s just get this over with.” With one last kiss for luck she steps past you and heads down the hallway. Miming the same sigh you just hope for the best and follow.

 

The trip down is surprisingly uneventful.

 

               The mood from before has you both jumping at shadows, though, jumping at your own footfalls even, but all told – nothing happens. You make it down to Basement 2, which is somehow a little dustier than upstairs, but nothing stops you. There’s no crazy guy, no oversize grimm, no monsters, nothing – it’s almost more disco-surfing than if something did happen.

               “Well, that’s disconcerting.” Weiss says as she inspects the floor with a flashlight you found at the desk, and yeah, disconcerting is what the lack of issues has been – not uh, whatever disco-surfing is. You look over her shoulder and notice that it does look like the floor has been swept recently, but a lingering look lets you realize those are creep tracks. She looks at you with a frown you know is mirrored on your own face as you nod acknowledgement of them – they look really fresh, not necessarily from a large pod, but pretty big individuals. Taking it a little slower now to stay alert you notice there are some tunnels that don’t really belong;

_Those must be the creep tunnels._ You point them out to Weiss and she agrees. This basement is huge and it seems like you’re getting nowhere sneaking about in the dark when you’re suddenly at the other wall. Were you not paying attention, or was there a spatial anomaly? Either way you stop suddenly making you backpedal a bit and trip on a, bone. Ordinarily you would catch yourself at this point, but you just tripped over a person’s femur and that’s caused a little bit of a short circuit for you preventing you from doing much but just falling directly over. Weiss does her best to catch you, but her depth perception must be off after all those injuries because she misses and trips falling across your legs.  For a moment you’re rather grateful that your legs aren’t actual flesh – the way the two of you are tangled up most likely would have caused you an injury and honestly, a leg injury next to the unbodied femur of some person in the Grimm Lair of the Dune Stalker is far less attractive than your current state.

_"Good news is nothing is broken, bad news is; I’m beginning to think that movie wasn’t just a movie.”_  You decide to make some noise to rouse Weiss from the grumbling heap she’s currently being.

               “No shit it’s not just a movie, Shineclock.” She grumbles at you pushing herself up slowly. Of course, you help as stealthily as you can before following her up.

_Oh great, she must have knocked her head pretty good on that one,_ you worry to yourself. She needs rest – that much is quite clear – and since as far as you know you aren’t going anywhere you really, really, really, really wish she’d get with the program – but nope, Weiss gotta Weiss. You mime exasperation as she sighs and picks up the flashlight. As she swings it around what you thought was a wall is revealed as the remains of a cave in and suddenly you remember this part of the movie.

               “Ah, yes, the cave-in – that means all the supplies we need are down that tunnel, the one that leads directly to the Dune Stalker.” Weiss elaborates aloud and you nod slowly. She sighs, again. That’s clearly where all the creep tracks go to and from as well. “This is just fucking great. Is there anything you want to say about talking shit before?” Weiss turns to you, her tanned and freckled skin barely illuminated in back light from the flashlight, exhaustion still draped across her like a coat of weights, but her eyes shine with a little bit of humor to cover up the fact that she’s scared as hell – and it’s the way that she tries so hard still the fills up your heart until it’s breaking and you can’t help yourself. You pull her into you and do your best to kiss her thoroughly before she pushes you back – but she’s tired and scared and for a moment she just closes her eyes and gives in, and it’s perfect. Even in this mess, it’s perfect, with her it’s always perfect, but it never lasts and soon she’s pushing you away. Not far this time, just far enough to rest her forehead against yours, leaving her eyes closed.

               “I take it that means, ’I’m sorry Weiss. I was ever so wrong and you were absolutely right which should have been clear because you are so clever and wonderful’?”  She uses a mocking approximation of your 16 year old voice and not wanting to ruin the moment you just nod.

_Yes. I was wrong, OK?_


	6. Well, I guess this'll work too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the end of what I'm going to do for this story, but it did deserve some kind of ending and so did everyone who enjoyed it so here it is.

                Too soon for your taste Weiss ends your blessed moment of rest, but you do need to get going and dust knows what you’ll actually run into down here. You kiss her knuckles before you let her go, and she does insist on going in front of you, but it’s easier just to watch her back really well than it is to argue. You pick up a few nicely sized pebbles from the rock slide on your way to the tunnel and follow her in.

                It’s at times like these that you really miss school, well, what you remember of it. They lent out such cool gear for missions! Well, it’s not like creeps see really well anyway, being primarily subterranean does that, but they are very sensitive to light so you kind of really wish you didn’t need to use a flashlight in these tunnels. Maybe you should have installed some low-light vision in Weiss’s goggles, now that’s an idea you hope you remember the next time you have access to supplies. For right now though you’ll just have to hope that you’ll see them before they see you – and you didn’t!

                You huff by reflex as a heavy smack from a tail sends you sprawling forward onto your chest. Weiss turns around right away and – man, that is a big creep. You’re back on your feet in no time but Weiss has already dropped the flashlight and engaged the enemy. It’s almost a surprise, but with space as limited as it is and the necessity of sight Weiss has you toss the flashlight up where she suspends it with a glyph. In spite of how extra tired burning the aura candle at both ends is going to make her it’s a good thing she did as you barely have time to get your Crescent Rose together to cover a side tunnel you hadn’t seen before. In fact this seems to be a sort of terminus for several tunnels and a relatively decent sized cavern, the fact that there’s room to work with doesn’t actually make you feel better in this case since there’s also a whole lot of creeps after all and Weiss is not at one hundred percent. Regardless, You do conjure Crescent Rose in time though, and one, two, three, take care of the first extra approaching creeps before turning around and doing it again, and again as Weiss does her best to get the large creep on its back.

                Actually, you are kind of thankful for the chaos after all. For a change it feels like you and Weiss are partners again as the fighting falls into a rhythm, almost a waltz really, with the three counts of strikes and parries and flourished movements. Nearly a perfect beat emerges in the craw-foff-hanie as Weiss blocks a stomp, parries a tail swipe and hits it from underneath. Over the top of that, admittedly quieter now, Crescent Rose sings as she slides through the wind, your cape snapping in counterpoint as you cover every other direction. She isn’t happy that you have to help, but at the same time she knows that there really isn’t any way that she could take care of all of these on her own without you, and you **are** graciously letting her deal with the big one herself. In a way it takes forever and in a way it’s over all too quickly as the influx of smaller creeps quits, Weiss takes a risk and ices the ground as the big one moves for a tail swipe getting itself into a bit of a spin that she helps along, finally putting it on its back. Quicker than it can react she jams a red dust shard into its neck and applies the smallest bit of aura – and pop goes the creeper.

Yeah, it’s a bit grim – heh – but it’s also awesome. Weiss is awesome.

                Suddenly a voice echoes from all around you,

                “I see you’ve defeated my welcoming committee, hehehe, but let’s see if you can find your way through my labyrinth!” It’s kind of tinny, almost like it’s coming through old speakers. Weiss lets the flashlight fall into her hand and you share a look – that was definitely the same voice that was laughing earlier.

                “Great, now we have to figure out which of these tunnels is the beginning of the maze that leads to the Dune Stalker. Fuck my life.” She takes a deep breath and you can feel all the curses she’s sending heaven’s way, and you agree – though you suppose it could be worse, at least if there’s a bad guy at the end of the tunnel you know you can win. Slowly, you and Weiss consider each tunnel in turn checking to see if there’s any indication that it could be the start of something stupid. It would be faster if she’d let you run down them a little, but she won’t just in case there are traps or whatever else she’s decided could be lurking and it’s easier not to argue. Finally you come to the tunnel directly opposite of the one you entered and upon crossing what could be its threshold small, open flame, dust torches spark all along the walls.

                _“Think this is it?”_ You tinkle as sarcastically as possible and Weiss snorts.

                “It really is just like the movie, with one exception.” She points at the ground. You look at where she’s pointing and it takes you a second – damn she is observant, even in this state – and there is literally an arrow drawn on the ground pointing down one direction. “What do you wanna bet these take us right to him?” You chuff and nod gesturing her forward.

                After the build up and the creeps, having a maze with directions and every trap clearly marked is kind of a letdown. Like, it’s nice that neither of you will end up hurt, and that this will take no time at all but it’s so anticlimactic that it feels a little unpleasant.  More than once Weiss stops you from purposefully triggering a trap and she makes you walk in front of her so she can keep a better eye on you for that.

                Actually, you’re kind of glad for this shitty maze. For a little while you’re both just Weiss and Ruby again, it’s really nice.

                As you keep going it becomes more and more clear that you really are just on the movie set and that they just never bothered to take it down as, occasionally, there are stage directions written on the walls. Sometimes you follow them, doing your best impression of one of the actors, trying to get Weiss to join in – sometimes she does with a quote and sometimes she just laughs. Regardless of the situation at large, it’s actually really fun and you end up holding hands all the way to the end – which is helpfully marked with ‘gasp’. Weiss jumps and you think you probably do too, as some melodramatic music begins to play over tinny speakers again and a large chair on a balcony looking place across this large cavern turns around slowly.

                “Ruby, now I can’t tell just by the villain spin or the villain theme or the evil décor, but I think that might be the Dune Stalker.” Weiss mumbles under her breath, absolutely unimpressed by the presentation and you can’t help it as you double over huffing in the nearest sound you have to raucous laughter. If you were still fleshy you would’ve hit the floor for sure, if not from the joke alone then from the hypoxia that surely would have followed. You hear the music cut off and the Dune Stalker start talking so you try to compose yourself so you don’t miss too much of his villain monologue – that’d be a shame for sure.

                “…and by the time I’m done with you you’ll be begging me to take you!” He’s pointing at Weiss as you finally start paying attention and you think maybe it wouldn’t have been a shame to have missed his entire monologue after all. You just stare at him trying to hold an intimidating pose as Weiss frowns, and then scowls, and then glares, and then glowers. The set of her jaw and the scary fire in her too-tired-for-this-shit eyes seems to make him a cow and he shrinks back a bit.

“Uh, g-get them Julius!” He claps his hands twice and there’s a large rumble as the sand on the floor shifts, revealing a set of massive, black pincers first.

_Oh, that’s gonna be a problem._ You look at Weiss as she studies the face plate that appears next and her eyes sharpen, she’s spotted something. As you turn, you hear loud whirring and a squeal and then you see it too; ‘Julius’ is old, animatronic and old. Gravity and large plates strain against aged cables and dusty joints. Motors that haven’t been active in too long whine under the effort and it becomes clear as ‘Julius’ finishes rising from its slumber, a tired winch struggling to lift the tarnished golden stinger high above it, that something is going to give. You hear the tell-tale ping as it’s the metal cabling that finally loses the struggle and tackle Weiss back into the maze, and just in time as the sudden release in tension sends rusty crap in every direction and the cable itself whips up and backwards into the ceiling and onto the balcony, showering the room in sparks and slivers of rock.

                Weiss is clearly very angry with you for shielding her, but with her reflexes as they are even she knows she wouldn’t have moved you both in time, doesn’t stop her from being angry though and as everything settles and you start to move off of her you make sure to kiss her so she can’t start in with her bullshit. It works for a moment and then she’s pushing you back and getting up all on her own with that fighting frown on her face and you let her have a moment so that you don’t have to hear what she’s already saying with her feelings. That girl – you really should have made her the “I’m Weiss and I’m emotionally constipated” t-shirt you wanted to back in Beacon like Yang suggested, she needs it.

_Oh, Yang_ , that’s who you were missing. Wow, now you feel like shit for forgetting your own sister. _Well, I can’t do anything about it right now –_ so you shake the bangs out of your face again and go to find Weiss.

                She’s already crossed the cavern and climbed up on the balcony, which is much easier now given that the part the “Dune Stalker: standing on is now significantly less together, with a thick cable buried right through the middle of it.

                _Oh, so much for that guy._ You approach it and there is absolutely no way a normal person hit by that would of survived – hell, you’re pretty sure Yang wouldn’t have either judging by the actual gouge in the roof and how deeply the cable is actually buried. _I feel like building that may have been a safety violation in the first place now._ With next to no effort you hop up and move next to Weiss who is studying a more detailed map of the facility and what seems to be a manifest of the production company that made “La Llave”.

                “I think this guy was actually on the crew of the movie. I don’t know if he was accidentally left here or if he stayed on purpose but one thing is for certain, “Oasis of the Damned” was just a movie.” You smile at her and wrap your arms around her from behind, gesturing to what she’s looking at as a question. “Oh, well, I found all this paper work and it would be even better if a production company left a vehicle here rather than us having to repair ours.” You nod into her back – that is sound logic. It takes her a little, which you don’t mind in your current position, but finally she finds what she’s looking for and you hear the jingle of keys.

                “There should be a freight elevator over here.” Weiss starts in a direction and rather than letting her go and upsetting your comfort you pick her up and walk in the direction she had turned. “Put me down this instant, Ruby Rose!” You shake your head in between her shoulder blades as she struggles, but, it seems you’ve gotten taller as she doesn’t reach the ground no matter how hard she tries. Finally she relents when you about run her into a wall. “Right! Turn right! Fine – if you won’t put me down at least listen to direction.” You nod and turn right. You wonder if she realizes that you’ve just defied her – or if she’ll just rationalize it away as she didn’t actually want to be put down in the first place.

                _Oh well, we’ll get there one day. I’ll make sure of it._ You press your face more firmly into her too thin back and move your arms to support her more comfortably as she tells you where to walk.

                “Duck, doorway – and stop.” You’re pretty sure even sitting in your arms like she is she would have had clearance, but you duck anyway to make sure and then stop. “Let me down now, I need to use the keys.” You give her a squeeze before doing as she asks. “I love you too, Ruby.” You smile, that’s not what you meant, but you’re happy to hear her say it nonetheless. She slots the key into a hole in a plain metal surface and as she turns it something like a scroll lights up asking for a password, but there seems to be a snowflake in the corner.

                “If this is as old as it seems this should work, but don’t laugh it’s weird.” You can’t help but tilt your head at that mysterious statement though she just moves right along. “Security override – executor, Nick;” the screen changes until it’s just showing an older looking SDC logo and Weiss nods for a moment before closing her eyes, “ **Maiden’s teat? Schnee! No, that’s awful!** ” She mimics a deeper voice yelling and as soon as the screen goes green you’re doubled over again.

                “Stop it! It’s not even that funny!” She growls as she tugs you by your hood into an opening set of elevator doors.

                “ _Maiden’s teat? Was that supposed to be the original password?”_ You chime through chuffs and she frowns as she pushes the ground floor button.

                “Yes, ‘Maiden’s teat’ was supposed to be the original password but the programmer thought it was terrible and his reaction amused grandfather so much he included the whole thing. Fortunately it only works on systems that haven’t been updated.” She crosses her arms and looks away leaning against the wall furthest from you and dust – what wouldn’t you give to just keep this sweet little marshmallow safe in a fluffy, warm, pillow fort forever? She’s never mentioned her grandfather before; you wonder if it’s somehow an even sorer spot than literally everything else about her family. You move over to her, on the side she’s facing away from and lean against her. She doesn’t change her posture any, but she subtly leans into you as well and you suppose that’s about as good as you’ll get as the elevator finally reaches the ground floor and stops.

                The doors open and, well, this was not what you were expecting at all; it appears to be a parking garage, a very exclusive parking garage, with all manner of fancy desert vehicles. You step out and on the wall beside the elevator is a panel giving out very precise readings on the climate inside of the garage and if what you’re reading is correct, any one of these vehicles that was perfectly good when it was parked in here will be just as good as the day it was.

                “ _Well, I guess this’ll work too.”_ It slips out but it looks like Weiss feels about the same anyway as she’s eyeballing a very, very, very nice – very, very, large – H-rover, in scarlet. You look around and see the spots are numbered, quickly find where the keys are stored and they aren’t there. You return a little bit disappointed only to find Weiss unlocking the doors and motioning you to get in. _It was that guy’s car then – go figure._

                “We’ll still have to stop at that abandoned facility; I don’t think this will make it much further than that without refueling.” She turns to you and turns the vehicle on – it’s loud enough to drown out Bumblebee and honestly you think that's just delicious. “Ready?” You nod and she smiles and off you go.

                The sun’s already set by now and as you lean back you notice one of those sun-roof things and open it. You hear Weiss laugh as you stand up so half your body is hanging out of it. It’s so good to hear her laugh that you just close your eyes for a moment to imagine feeling the cold desert wind on skin and the warmth of the hand on your leg and for a little bit you can. You mime a steadying breath and look up to count the constellations. Those that sometimes reappear where they belong and the ones that you definitely intend to bring back home to Weiss – _yeah, I think this’ll work too._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you can't get enough of the AU go see MamaKatie over on "Collapse" it's great, she's great.
> 
> If for some reason you can't get enough of me - come bother me on tumblr at confident-entree and, as ever, praise the great WeissColdGlare for letting me borrow this au

**Author's Note:**

> Special thanks to WeissColdGlare for this beautiful and terrible AU, and for letting me use it. Go check out their tumblr: www.weisscoldglare.tumblr.com


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